Flashpoint Ukraine - Voice of America Voice of America (VOA)

Vice President Kamala Harris will take part in next weekend’s Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland along with nearly 90 countries and organizations plan to attend. Ukraine says it struck one of Russia's most advanced warplanes over the weekend. Ukrainian military officials say weekend missile and drone attacks continued over the weekend amid concerns Moscow is looking to expand its buffer zone. And one year after the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine collapsed, the devastating impacts continue.

Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province. The Netherlands will allow its soon to be delivered F-16 fighter jets to hit Russian targets. President Zelenskyy accuses China of pressuring countries not to attend upcoming peace talks on Ukraine. Right wing, populist parties are expected to surge in three-day EU parliamentary elections starting June 6th which analysts say could impact support for Ukraine’s war against Russia. And the story of a professional Ukrainian tennis player is voluntarily fighting for his country.

Russian missiles struck a popular shopping mall in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv lover the weekend, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens more. Spain has pledged to provide military equipment to Ukraine worth 1 billion euros this year under a bilateral agreement signed on Monday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid. Experts say there has been a sharp increase in cases of Ukrainians suffering from anxiety, depression, PTSD and other mental health problems that likely will have a long-term impact.

Kremlin forces pressed forward in Ukraine’s war-ravaged northeast, adding pressure to Kyiv’s outnumbered and outgunned forces as they wait for delayed Western military aid to arrive. Anna Chernikova provides an update from Kyiv. Ukraine’s troop levels could soon get a boost. Thousands of men completed required registration following a controversial mobilization law that went into effect over the weekend. Russia expert Nicole Wolkov with the Institute for the study of war on the growing alliance between Russia and China. A Ukrainian boxer gives his war weary country something to celebrate.

Russia said Monday it plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain, and the United States. A barrage of weekend Russian drone strikes hit civilian targets as Ukrainians celebrated the Orthodox Easter Holiday. A US architect is helping to design and renovate housing for internally displaced Ukrainians.

Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against the clock to deploy critical new military aid to counter costly Russian advances across Ukraine’s eastern frontlines and support for Kyiv’s ability to thwart drone and missile attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Kyiv on Monday said new Western supplies have started arriving, but slowly. A Ukrainian 'Grandpa' is leading an over-60s unit fighting Russia. Thirty-eight years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, hundreds of people continue the work to dismantle the long-defunct power plant and control the contaminated exclusion zone, a 30-kilometer area surrounding it.